Fitz's Stockton: A rocker who fiddles with swing

One of the coolest bands of all time was a Western Swing outfit called Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

They played a rollicking fusion of country-western, boogie, jazz, rockabilly, big-band swing and other influences so wide it’s impossible to understand how Nashville ended up so traditional.

“I didn’t like it,” Dayna Wills said. “It wasn’t my rock ‘n’ roll.”

Wills, 66, is Bob Wills’ niece. A Stockton resident, she’s the singer in a rock/R&B band called the Tule Cats. They’re well known on the local circuit.

But in Texas and Oklahoma, where Bob Wills is revered like Frank Sinatra is in Vegas, it’s a different story.

“In California, I’m a peon,” Wills said. “But when I go to Texas they roll out the red carpet.”

In Texas, Wills is a Western swinger. She has performed 22 times at Bob Wills Day with, an annual festival that attracts 10,000 fans to Wills’ hometown of Turkey, Texas. She has played with Wills’ surviving bandmates.

She has recorded three Western Swing CDs and a mixed genre CD mostly of originals. A song she co-wrote, “Sing Faded Love, Dayna Gayle” won "Song of the Year" at the Academy of Western Artists awards ceremony.

She sings standards, too.

“I’m just so fickle,” Wills said. “I like everything.”

The Tule Cats are playing Sept 18 at Royce Farms BBQ, 10880 N. Highway 99. Admission is free. There’s a car show. Check out the only Stockton rocker chick who also is in the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame.

— Contact columnist Michael Fitzgerald at (209) 546-8270 or michaelf@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/fitzgeraldblog and on Twitter @Stocktonopolis.

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